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Vol. 51, No. 7, Feb. 19, 2009

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Vol. 51, No. 7, Feb. 19, 2009 MUNDO OBRERO Asistencia pública se desvanece 12 Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org FEB. 19, 2009 VOL. 51, NO. 7 50¢ What can stop layoffs? Organize to fight back now By Fred Goldstein People Movement is forging a grassroots alliance for struggle and calling a national action against the bank- On becoming president, Barack Obama proclaimed ers on Wall Street on April 3 and 4. While the mobiliza- Employee Free Choice Act his job creation goal to be 3 million jobs over the next two tion is targeting the bankers, it has a broad program with years. Yet in the last two months alone nearly 1.2 million a focus on stopping the layoffs. Hundreds of endorsers jobs have been lost: 577,000 in December and 598,000 and contingents are coming aboard from every region of Why workers in January. The December figure was revised upward the country. by the government, which had originally estimated it at Along the same line, a network of local coalitions in 533,000. Economists expect the monthly number to be cities around the country, from New York to Boston to even worse in February. Los Angeles, is organizing to make May Day 2009 a need it With each new layoff announcement, the target num- day of struggle and unity to fight back against attacks By Cheryl LaBash ber for jobs to be created goes up. The latest target is 4 on immigrant workers and to strengthen the struggle million, even though right-wing Republicans are whit- against the economic crisis. Many of these coalitions On Feb. 4, thousands of workers delivered boxes tling down the stimulus package. played key roles in the great May Day 2006 strike/boy- of signed cards supporting the Employee Free Choice The official unemployment number has jumped cott of millions of immigrant workers. Act (EFCA) to Congress in Washington, D.C. The from 7.2 percent to 7.6 percent. But this is not the total At this moment a delegation representing 250 work- cards represent more than 1.5 million signers from unemployment number, which includes those who have ers, most of them immigrants, who sat in at Republic every U.S. state. On Feb. 5, workers in California stopped looking for work and those working part time Windows and Doors in Chicago is touring the country. marched 10 miles in the rain from downtown Los because they cannot find full-time work. That has jumped These workers occupied the plant for five days until they Angeles to the Westwood Federal Building dramati- from 13.5 percent to 13.9 percent. won their severance pay and back pay. They are telling cally demanding passage of the EFCA. In effect, this means that to achieve full employment their inspiring story to standing-room-only gatherings Meanwhile, corporations, banks and business asso- for the approximately 154 million people in the workforce, of trade unionists and activists. The workers are from ciations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are heav- some 21.4 million new full-time jobs would be needed the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers, Local ily financing public relations and lobbying campaigns now—and this number is growing rapidly each month. 1110. The tour is sponsored by Jobs with Justice. to defeat it. The U.S. Senate “millionaires’ club” has Every worker should do the math. The so-called The boldness of Local 1110 inspired the solidarity of even balked at confirming Hilda Solis, President stimulus package, even assuming that it could meet its the labor movement and the political movement. These Barack Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, goals, appears more and more anemic compared to the workers set a living example of reviving a tactic–the sit- because Solis supports the EFCA. momentum of the crisis, which is growing each week, down strike—that was used in the 1930s on a massive each month. Creating relatively few jobs at a snail’s scale to win the greatest victories in U.S. labor history. What is the Employee Free Choice Act? pace leaves tens of millions of workers unemployed and Local 1110 carried out its sit-down strike in Chicago EFCA legislation proposes to block bosses who try underemployed. Tens of millions more are vulnerable to in the midst of a growing economic crisis. But these to stop or delay union certification through intimi- becoming part of the unemployment statistics. workers are not unique. All over the country there are dation, threats or firing pro-union workers. Under Every new grim announcement by the government on rank-and-file workers, lower-level union officials, shop the EFCA when a majority of workers sign cards and unemployment, foreclosures, evictions, homelessness, stewards and trade union activists at all levels, as well choose direct union certification instead of an election, the loss of health care, hunger, record numbers applying as sympathizers with the labor movement, looking for a the bosses will be required to begin negotiations for to hard-pressed food banks, an increase in child poverty, way to fight back. the initial contract. Binding arbitration can be used to etc., should become a big wake-up call for the multina- reach two-year contracts if those negotiations fail. For tional working class to get organized for a fightback. Vast network of potential power the first time, penalties including triple back pay and There are now 16 million workers in the organized fines can be levied against the bosses for “unfair labor Actions being planned labor movement. There are tens of thousands of local practices.” One important attempt to begin the crucial fightback unions around the country, thousands of them under Both union federations, Change to Win and the is taking place in New York City where the Bail Out the Continued on page 3 Continued on page 4 ENFORCE BAILOUT M UST-SEE CINEMA Relieve homeowners 2 ‘MILK’ & ‘FTA’ 5 BOLIVIA’S DARWIN & MARX 4 NEW CONSTITUTION Victory for Indigenous peoples 8 RACISM & STATE REPRESSION Origins of Black History Month 6 GAZA FALLOUT Detail from contemporary The right to resist 7 Zimbabwe Boycott, Divest, Strike 11 sculpture The frameup of Chuck Mumia Abu-Jamal Turner Subscribe to Workers World update 6 Eight weeks trial: $4 One year: $25 www.workers.org 7 NAME PHone EMAIL Free ADDRESS CITY/STATE/ZIP Leonard Peltier WORKERS WORLD 55 W. 17 St., 5 Fl., NY, NY 10011 212-627-2994 Editorial 10 Page 2 Feb. 19, 2009 www.workers.org Michigan sheriff points the way Enforce bailout bills, H In the U.S. Organize to fight back now . 1 relieve homeowners Employee Free Choice Act—Why workers need it . 1 Enforce bailout bills, relieve homeowners . 2 By Jerry Goldberg in the case of HERA, the value of the homes in foreclo- Support immigrant rights . 3 sure. In almost every part of the country, home values Activists tell Mich. governor: Stop foreclosures . 3 The Treasury Secretary will soon announce plans have dropped precipitously, so these laws mandate sig- Marx, Darwin and upheaval in biological sciences . 4 for the federal government to essentially take over the nificant reductions in the principal of the loans. In cities failed mortgage industry. The announcement is expected like Detroit, where $150,000 homes are selling for $7,500 Community activists crash CEO’s conclave . .4 to include a dramatic expansion of the Troubled Asset after the owners are foreclosed and evicted, these laws Movie review: ‘Milk’ . 5 Recovery Program, under which the U.S. Treasury will virtually mandate turning over the homes to their current New life for anti-war film Pentagon suppressed . 5 either directly control or have a significant interest in owners. most mortgages, either through the creation of a special There is no effective mechanism in place, however, for The origins of Black History Month . 6 federal bank for failing loans or with enhanced federal carrying out the provisions embodied in TARP and HERA Petition says ‘stop frame-up of Chuck Turner’ . 6 guarantees to back up failing loans. on behalf of homeowners. It will take a mass struggle to The class character of violence . 7 This is an extension of a policy already in effect. On enforce these laws and stop foreclosures. Legal update on Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeals . 7 July 30 of last year, the U.S. government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee at Sheriff Evans got it right Letter to the editor . 10 least one-half of all mortgage loans, through the Housing On Feb. 2 Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans of and Economic Recovery Act. That laid the groundwork Detroit, after examining the bailout bills, stopped all sher- H Around the world for TARP. In January the government announced that in iff sales in the county. Sheriff sales are the first step in New constitution wins in Bolivia . 8 addition to bailout gifts of $45 billion each to Citigroup the foreclosure process in Michigan. There were approxi- Global crisis cuts immigrants’ jobs . 8 and Bank of America, the government will guarantee mately 500 sheriff sales per week in Wayne County. $300 billion in bad loans for Citigroup and $100 billion Sheriff Evans stated, “The sheriff would violate the New Somalia government . 9 in bad loans for Bank of America. TARP by conducting mortgage foreclosure sales. … The Harlem meeting: ‘Hands off Zimbabwe’ . 9 sheriff opens himself up to liability by foreclosing mort- Tamils protest bloody offensive . 9 What this means for workers and poor gages, or assets as they are defined in the TARP Act, that Kim Jong-Il .
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